How does this work?

[Shallowstreams]

My daughter is 10m old and naps at 9 and 2pm roughly. Her morning nap is her longest and often an hour and half. Her afternoon one around an hour. She is due to start nursery in a couple of months and they have said their nap time is after lunch around 12:15 and then they can have a morning nap if they want.

How will this work? There's no way she can do only one nap or hold out till 12:15 but if she has a nap at 9 then there's no way she'll go back for another so early.

Should I start only letting her have half hour in the morning in preparation? Although even if I do this there won't be long enough between this and the afternoon one as she needs around 3-3.5 hours awake time.

Really confused! Any tips?

In a couple of months she will probably be ready to transition to one long nap anyway , mine did at around 1yo.

Oh I thought it was more like 15 months? I can't really see it happening as by 9am she is desperate for a nap!

Things can change a lot in a couple of months! Mine went to 1 nap around 12/13 months too, though we did have to do early bedtimes for a while to stop them getting overtired.

What time does she wake in the morning? If its 6.30-7ish and she needs that nap at 9am a shorter morning nap might work well for you if you dont mind waking her. With a 30 min morning nap its likely she'd need her afternoon nap earlier than usual, so that could work out ok with the nursery timings i.e:
AM nap 9-9.30, PMnap 12-2pm

If she's an early riser I would suggest gradually shifting the morning nap later by 10-15mins every few days/week. As it gets later the morning nap should (hopefully) lengthen - ideally you want a good 2hrs and then the afternoon nap can be dropped completely & replaced with early bedtime. It should also sort out the early waking!

If it helps, we did:
Up 7am, nap 11am-1/2pm, bed 6-7pm

for a while, as she's got older (now 17 months) its become more like:

Up 6.30-7am nap 12.30 - 2.30pm bed 7.30pm

She's usually up between 6:30-7:00 and needs a nap by 8:45-9

She goes to bed at 7:30 and it wouldn't be possible to do this any earlier when we're both back at work anyway I don't think

I might experiment with limiting her morning nap to try and make the second one earlier. I hate waking her though as she loves her sleep!!

Tbh if at the moment she's getting good nights & 2 reliable naps then she clearly needs it & I wouldnt do anything to change that right now.

Signs she is ready to transition to 1 nap are refusing the afternoon nap when she's had a good morning nap, early waking or bedtime battles. Until you get those I would honestly stick with 2 & reconsider the nursery naps much closer to the time as it might all change by then.

How many days will she be at nursery anyway? If its just 1 or 2 days a week you may find she will cope ok with a single nap there & then carry on as usual at home. Hth

It will be three days a week.

She does love a little sleep!